School employee admits to child solicitation charge

3/12/18 3:39 PM

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A Massachusetts school employee is admitting to traveling to Rhode Island to solicit sexual activity with a 15-year-old girl.

U.S. Attorney Stephen Dambruch says 29-year-old Alexander Viola said in federal court that he intended to meet the girl in Cranston, RI in 2016 after having conversations via text and on the internet of a sexual nature.

The person he solicited was actually a Rhode Island State police trooper assigned to an internet crimes task force. Viola is a former staff adviser for a chess club and intramural volleyball team in Shrewsbury, MA middle schools.

He is scheduled to be sentenced in June and faces charges punishable with up to 30 years in federal prison and up to a lifetime of supervised release. An attempt to reach Viola’s attorney went unanswered.

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